Electronic components, integrated circuits, and many other modern articles of manufacture require extreme cleanliness in the processes used in their fabrication. For many such articles the application or removal of solvents, process debris, and other contaminants must be accomplished using swabs, wipes, or similar means. These swabs or wipes must in turn, be very clean and must avoid the addition of any further particulate or residual contaminants to the process or product. Most swabs presently used in such processes are made from woven or foam materials. Various means for preventing the loss of fibers or lint from the swab have been employed to preclude contamination of the article being cleaned. The use of nonwoven or foam materials for swabs has been employed to partially remedy fiber contamination problems, however, linting, flaking, or other degradation of these materials produce similar contamination difficulties.
The size and cleaning application needed for various articles of manufacture additionally requires a range of swab sizes and cushioning of the swab tip. For example, extremely fine cleaning work may require a swab having a narrow or rimmed tip for access to the part to be cleaned. For various operations requiring scrubbing, a relatively stiff or uncushioned tip may be desirable while for other applications a highly cushioned tip in either a radial direction, with respect to the swab stick, or a longitudinal direction may be desirable.
The material employed for the tip of a swab must allow cleaning of the material itself to avoid other contamination of the manufacture from the swab. For example, current swabs employing bleached cotton may introduce chlorides as contaminates in the manufacturing process. The chemical composition of the material used in the swab and the likelihood of retaining contaminates from the process used in cleaning the material contribute to the quality of the swab produced.